The Hawaiian gazette., 1887-08-02
The Invention of Writing.

Imitation is natural to man, indeed
man is the most initiative Of all ami
mails. In all ages, and in all coun-
tries, says writer in the photographic
Monthly for 1878, some methods have
obtained of copying or tracing the
Gkenesses Of sensible or visible OBJ
jects. Thus, to signify that one man
had killed another, the picture of a
man stretched upon the ground was
made, with another standing by his
side with a deadly weapon in his
hand. This was the sort of writing
practiced by the Mexicans when
America was discovered. When those
living on the coast saw the Spanish
ships, they drew pictures Of them, and
sent them to their emperor to apprise
him of their arrival By the same
pictures the Mexicans are said to
have transmitted a record of the most
important transactions of their en-
pire The imperfection of such a
mode of writing will be obvious to all.
Pictures could do no more than de
lineate external events. They could
not exhibit the connections of them,
or describe even such qualities as are
visible to the eye, or convey any idea
of the dispositions of men.
The second stage in the progress of
writing may be said to be hieroglyph
les. These in some measure obviate
the defects of the former method.
This system consisted of certain sym
bols which were made to represent IN
visible objects on account Of the an
alogy or resemblance with such sym
bols We're supposed to bear to the
objects. Thus an eye represented
knowledge, because the eye IS the
chief medium for acquiring knowl-
edge; a circle representing eternity,
because 1t has neither beginning nor
end: an ostrich represented justice,
because in the ostrich the feathers
are of equal length; g palm tree rep
resented year, or twelve calendar
months, because the palm has usually
about twelve leaves (which, by the
way, are commonly called branches,
but improperly sticking out from its
head, &c. Hleroglyphics were there
fore, a more refined, extensive species
of painting Pictures delineated the
resemblance of external or visable
objects -hieroglyphics denoted inyis-
ible objects by analogy taken from
the external world
Some faint traces of hieroglyphical
writing, mixed with their historical
pictures, were found among the Mex
leans, but Egypt was the country in
which this sort of writing was most
studied and brought into regular art.
In hieroglyphics were preserved all
the boasted wisdom of their priests.
According to the properties which
they ascribed to animals, or the quail
tiles with which they supposed nat
ural objects to be endowed, they
selected them to be the emblems or
hieroglyphs of moral objects, and en-
ployed them in their writing for this
end. Thus, ingratitude was define
ated by viper, imprudence by fly,
wisdom by an ant, victory by a hawk,
doubtful child by a stork, a man
universally Stunned by an eel (which
they supposed kept company with no
other fish,, and so on. 1t must be OBJ
vious, however, that as many of these
properties of objects which they as
sumed for the foundation of their
hieroglyphics were merely imaginary,
and the illusions drawn from them
forced and ambiguous, this sort of
writing must have expressed very in
distinctly the connections of things,
and could be no other than enigmat-
ical and confused in the highest de-
gree, and would make very imperfect
vehicle of knowledge of any kind.
The next step in the progress of
writing was the invention of arbitrary
characters or signs which stood for
objects, though without any resemb-
lance or analogy to the objects signi-
fed OF this nature was the method
of writing of the Peruvians. They
made use of small chords of different
colors, and by knots upon these Of
various sizes, and differently arranged,
they contrived signs for giving in
formation and communicating their
thoughts to one another OF this ma
ture, also, are the written characters
which are used to this day throughout
the great Empire Of China. The Chi
nese have no alphabet of letters or
sign for sounds which compose their
words, but every single character
which they use in writing is signif-
cant of an idea 1t is mark which
stands for some idea or object. Hence
the number of their characters is i'm
mense. 1t corresponds with the num-
Der of objects or ideas which they
have occasion to express. They are
said to have seventy thousand of these
written characters. To learn to read
and write them to perfection is the
work of a lifetime, which subjects
learning among them to infinite dis
advantage, and greatly retards the
progress of knowledge. may add
here that our arbitrary numerals
our arithmetical tigures-are signif
cant marks of precisely the same ma
ture as the Chinese characters. They |